| New Invention Sends Velcro ‘Down the Drain’
CHILLICOTHE, IL., Dec. 27, 2006 - That miracle fastener system has done it again, this time solving a common household problem-slow drains.
Scott Turner, a local businessman turned inventor, explains “If you’ve ever stood ankle deep in water while taking a shower, you know the problem. Hair and gunk blocks the drain and chemicals and coat hangers just don’t seem to do the trick”.
Turner’s father owns Western Yeast Company, a Chillicothe manufacturing firm which produces a drain and septic product called Di-San. One day while trying to figure out why the product was not opening a slow bathtub drain he discovered that hair had accumulated near the top of the drain and it was the real culprit.
Then the light bulb came on for him. “Why not use common “hook-and-loop” material to snag and retrieve those hair clogs? After numerous failed attempts losing Velcro down the drain, Turner came up with a method of permanently attaching the hook portion of the hook-and-loop material to the end of a pliable tube and “Voila” the FlexiSnake™ Hair Clog Tool was born. “It fits in a shirt pocket and is perhaps the world’s most compact drain snake” Turner says. “It worked even better than I expected”. In fact it worked so well he’s applied for a patent on the system.
“You’ll be amazed at the results” the new product packaging says. “Either that or nauseated” says Turner. The product’s website, www.FlexiSnake.com, shows an example of what you might find lurking just below the drain pop-up stopper. “The slimy glob looks like Sasquatch crawled down the drain” he exclaims. “I had one test-market customer say ‘somebody’s been using my sink-that mess couldn’t have come off of me!’ ”.
According to Turner the problem that FlexiSnake solves is found wherever you have traditional bathroom drains. “This makes for a universally large potential market. The existing gauge of market size is the chemical drain cleaner market which is huge. It’s been estimated that 40-50% of households in the U.S. will use drain cleaners1. That represents a $150-$200 million market, and that is just household use2. Janitorial and institutional use of drain cleaners is nearly as large as household use3. And those figures are only for the U.S.”. “Slow hair-clogged drains occur wherever people and bathrooms coexist, and that is most of the developed world. This represents a vast audience for a tool like FlexiSnake”. Of course all drain clogs aren’t the result of hair, but it is one of the most common causes. Turner sees FlexiSnake following that same market. “Wherever chemical drain cleaner is sold, FlexiSnake could be sold”. As a matter of fact, FlexiSnake has received consideration from one major chemical drain cleaner company exploring the possibility of a combination product.
“Since FlexiSnake is so compact, it could be tightly coiled inside a clear plastic cap cover to complement existing chemical drain cleaners and fill the ‘performance gap’ that exists due to their inability to effectively remove hair clogs” Turner says. S.C. Johnson, the makers of Drano, has looked at FlexiSnake and told Turner that they have considered this type of combination in the past. And for good reason-one of the other major chemical drain cleaner companies has stated in their trade materials that their product removes only 38% of “hanging hair” clogs-far from a complete solution for the frustrated homeowner with a slow drain4.
There are videos on the FlexiSnake website that show what happens when chemical drain cleaners are used on these types of clogs. “Most of it just washes past the clog. You really need some mechanical force to pull loose the hair and gunk from the drain stopper mechanism.” And that is where FlexiSnake shines.
Velcro, which is generically referred to as “hook-and-loop” fastener material, lives only to snag, and hold, it’s hair-like loop material. This “odd fellow” combination of hook-and-loop material with a drain snake is what makes FlexiSnake such a novel and effective solution to a problem that has plagued people ever since the invention of the drain stopper.
“If your problem is from the drain trap up, which many are, then you’re going to be surprised at how quick and fast FlexiSnake fixes it. It slides past most drain stoppers and with a twist or two will entangle the clog for easy retrieval. There is a ‘wow’ effect when you pull a wad of hair out of the drain and it immediately begins flowing freely again, particularly if the person hasn’t gotten relief using other methods. Chemical drain cleaners require you to wait 30 or 60 minutes and are dangerous to use, whereas FlexiSnake is quick and safe”.
Turner has begun low volume production of FlexiSnake through Western Microbials, a division of the family company in Chillicothe. A recent test market run in Geiger’s True Value, a local hardware store, was encouraging. Without any advertising or product introduction, FlexiSnake sold more units in the 2 month test than any of the 12 sku’s of chemical drain cleaners carried by the store. In fact, FlexiSnake unit count sales were nearly half of all 12 combined.
“People are finding FlexiSnake is effective based on early testimonials we’ve gotten” he says. The website has some feedback from initial users under a link called “Flexi-Fans”. “When you are able to solve someone’s problem like that it’s a good feeling-plus you’ve earned a lifelong repeat customer since, just like chemical drain cleaners, FlexiSnake is disposable”.
What does the future hold for Turner and FlexiSnake? “I’m pretty well convinced at this point that there is a vacuum that exists in a significant market, and FlexiSnake has the capability of filling it” he says. “Now the focus is finding the right partner that has the global distribution and patenting expertise to take FlexiSnake to that market. We’ve scanned the marketplace to identify and prioritize potential partners”. One well known international tool manufacturer is currently looking at, and testing FlexiSnake for inclusion in their line. “I’ve tried to consider cost and manufacturability from the very beginning, so I believe that FlexiSnake will scale well to mass production”.
But most new inventions never make it to market, let alone achieve success. So what is Turner’s strategy to try and beat those odds? “Continue to try to think outside the box” he says. “I tend to lose interest following traditional patterns, and often find myself thinking along the less-traveled side roads of a problem. Quite often you just find yourself lost and looking foolish. On a rare occasion you’ll discover something others haven’t seen”.
Outside the box would be a good description of a character that Turner has dreamed up to draw traffic to the new website. Click on the “Fun” link on the bottom of any page and you’ll find “The FlexiSnake Guy”, a zany spokesperson that digresses into humorous exposition through a mock “Question and Answer” format. Turner explains “People enjoy a humor break and it’s a method of generating “viral” traffic to your website. If a visitor gets a chuckle, they may refer the link to friends. It’s all about getting the product in front of people, and with 1 out of 2 households buying drain cleaner, there’s a good likelihood that some of those visitors may have had a drain-clog event recently”.
After 2½ years on the project Turner offers an observation. “There’s a wide chasm between an idea and a successful product in the marketplace. In between there are countless issues involving patenting, research, testing, manufacturability, marketing and distribution. All the pieces have to come together right, and then on top of all that, you better pray”.
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Contact information: Scott Turner - 309-274-6223 flexi@flexisnake.com
Press information available for download at http://www.FlexiSnake.com/press
(1)”The more specific-use products, such as drain cleaners, rug shampoo, oven cleaner and toilet bowl cleaners are used by nearly half (or more) of all households.” Expose Household 2004
http://www.cleanones.com/expose.htm
(2) “Drain Openers Slip to $183 Million“ The Household Cleaning Products Market based on InfoScan data supplied by IRI (Information Resources, Inc)
http://www.packagedfacts.com/product/print/default.asp?productid=112838
(3) Bio Enzymes (drain opener, drain cleaner, etc.) $157,816,000
2004 Report on Sanitary Supply Distributor Sales
http://www.cleanlink.com/industrystatistics/2004sanitaryreport.asp
(4) Clorox Plumbs Warchest for $18M In Answer to Drano Foamer
Brandweek, July 26, 1999 by Christine Bittar http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BDW/is_30_40/ai_55301180
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